Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies and Theory Journals
Please share your experiences working with these journals! Feel free to add other journals to the list. Try to stick with this format: each journal should be separated by dashes, and responses under each journal should each have their own bullet. Back to Literary Studies Journals ---- Arthuriana * ---- Comparative Literature *Moved fairly quickly. Two anonymous reviews within 4 four months. From time of acceptance to actual time of publication, however, was 1 1/2 years because of a back log of accepted articles. *also moved quickly for me. 2 anonymous reviews within 2 months; one reviewer positive the other hostile (rejection, 2011) ---- Contemporary Literature '' * ---- ''Critical Inquiry *Highly desirable publication venue, like PMLA for the theory crowd. Given the high number of submissions I imagine they receive, a quick turnaround time (4 months), but in my case the rejection came without any reviewer feedback, and the editor's note simply stated that they enjoyed my article but it didn't fill a current need. Still, worth a shot when it's only 4 months out of your publishing life! ---- Criticism *Recent reputation is an early career-type journal. Not terribly difficult to publish here. A little disorganized and slow on turnaround (6 mos. for me). Didn't ask for any revisions even though I know my article needed them. ---- Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction *They would not consider an article I submitted b/c it was not formatted in MLA style; rather than waste time on reformatting I chose to submit elsewhere, and it was quickly accepted. So don't submit any non-MLA articles here. *3 months for a rejection, only one reviewer commented. Their comments were helpful and basically right, but sounded a lot more like a revise/resubmit than a rejection. That seemed to be the editor's decision. *I had a great experience with them, which was much appreciated because my tenure clock was ticking like Marisa Tomei's biological clock in My Cousin Vinny. They got back to me on the article within six weeks, had extremely helpful review comments, and led me through two rounds of revision and resubmission. This directly led to my being able to get tenure. I'm still waiting for the article to come out, but I'm always happy to have something accepted because they wanted it, not because they needed it. ---- Cultural Critique *A very pleasant publishing experience overall, though not the quickest: 15 months from submission to initial reader reports; 3 months for acceptance of revisions; ~1 year from acceptance to publication. Did allow me to revise extensively after mixed initial reviews. Reviews (including the one that initially recommended rejection) were extremely thorough and constructive; that negative review might be the most thorough going over my work has ever received. ---- Diacritics *Is this still a live journal? Looks like last issue was published in 2009? *It's still live. The most recent issue came out a couple months ago. They're just backdating it. *Everyone I know who's published here has had TERRIBLE experiences, i.e., 2-3yrs from submission to acceptance, then another 1-2yrs. to publication. ---- Eighteenth-Century Fiction * ---- Eighteenth-Century Studies * ---- Exemplaria *Exemplaria an academic journal dedicated to medieval and Renaissance studies from Maney Publishing has received the 2011 Phoenix Award for Significant Editorial Achievement from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) ---- Historical Materialism *Good journal, but very slow moving. ---- Huntington Library Quarterly *Really impressive experience here. Standard-to-fast turnaround (2-4 months), very full readers' reports and editors notes. This journal took a good article and made it a really good article, and I learned a lot in the process. More rigorous and helpful than its more prestigious peers, in my experience. ---- JMEMS: Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies *Before submitting, note somewhat odd formatting request: "All material in the document, including extracts and endnotes, should be formatted in a 12-point Courier (typewriter style) font (not in a proportional font like Times Roman)." ---- JML: Journal of Modern Literature *Moved very quickly. Even with 2 R&Rs, time from submission to acceptance was only 4 months. Very organized, thorough, and friendly editors and board. X2 ---- Journal of Narrative Theory * ---- MFS: Modern Fiction Studies *Submitted an article in November 2011 and was rejected in January 2012. The editor copy and pasted one reader review that was particularly nasty. Just beyond rude. So rude that I was completely stunned and kind of wish I could plaster it all over the internet. The reviewer clearly spent a lot of time crafting the perfect metaphors, similes, and imagery to convey what I can only interpret as hatred for what s/he is doing. (The irony is that, in a dependent clause, the reviewer admits that I had actually proven my thesis and that it was an important argument to make!) Maybe they think it's funny? Except it's not. I've received very nice rejections before from PMLA, for example, so don't discount me as particularly sensitive. ---- MLN: Modern Language Notes * ---- MLQ: Modern Language Quarterly *Typically very quick turnaround (especially for rejections) with full editor's report, suggestions etc. ---- Modern Language Review * ---- Modern Philology *Probably my best publishing experience. Fast turnaround (2-3 months) with brilliant and helpful suggestions. ---- Mosaic *Overall, a very good experience and a very organized submission process. Three months after the initial submission, I received a conditional acceptance (along with two very helpful reader reports), and three months after sending the revised essay, I received the editor's final changes and a contract. *submitted 3/2010; received conditional acceptance w/ 2 good reader reports 12/2010; good experience with production editor; a bit slow to publication, but overall good experience ---- Narrative * ---- Neophilologus * ---- Nineteenth-Century Literature * ---- Novel: A Forum on Fiction *Moved quickly: from submission to acceptance took 3 months. ---- October *Is thus journal actually reading submissions? Something I sent a year ago was entirely ignored and published elsewhere. ---- Philological Quarterly *Had an excellent experience with them. From submission to acceptance was less than a month; acceptance also came with detailed and insightful readers' reports that improved the essay considerably. ---- PMLA *Impressively quick responses and thorough feedback. Made it to editorial board, where it was rejected, but very heartened by entire process. ---- Poetics Today * ---- Polygraph *Respected, but not peer reviewed, graduate-student-run journal operating out of the Duke University Graduate Program in Literature. Generally publishes theme issues once a year. ---- Public Culture * ---- Renaissance Drama * ---- Renaissance Quarterly * ---- Representations * ---- Social Text *18 months from submission to publication. Two reader reports, careful and professional editorial board and staff. ---- Speculum * ---- Studies in the Novel *Extremely quick. Received R&R within 3 weeks of submission. Focus on cultural, historical research. *3 anonymous reviews within approx. 4 months; R&R then acceptance less than a month after resubmission ---- SubStance * ---- Telos * ---- Textual Cultures *Good place for work of a materialist, book-historical, and textual studies inclination. Always looking for submissions. Editor is extremely helpful and quick on email, and the process is relatively painless (in my recent experience, from submission to publication in six months, with outside reports and good revision suggestions). ---- Textual Practice *Publishes a diverse range of critical theory articles - some of them very good - but not had any luck there myself. Two outright rejections - within 6 months and 9 months respectively - though puzzlingly with the kind of reviewer comments you normally expect to see accompanying a revise & resubmit or conditional acceptance decision, and on material I have had no trouble publishing (following rejection from TP) in journals of comparable standing. They don't give full copies of reader reports so maybe they only share the less derogatory comments. Either way, from my (possibly atypical) experience, it seems they don't have a lot of time to spend working with authors on revisions, so make sure your submission is print-ready if you try here. ---- Thesis Eleven * ---- Viator * ----